ABOUT LABBE'S INTERTEXTUAL DISTANCE

18 pagesInternational audienceIn the 2001, Volume 8, Number 3, issue of the Journal of Quantitative Linguistics (pp. 213 - 231) M. M. Dominique and Cyril Labb published a paper entitled “Inter-Textual Distance and Authorship Attribution. Corneille and Molire”. Dominique and Cyril Labb (hereafter referred to as DCL) propose a new formula for the computation of dissimilarity between texts, as well as a distances scale. They intend to apply it in the field of authorship attribution, and especially in one particular case: a controversy about the authorship of several plays signed by Molire. The object of this paper is to discuss their rationale and conclusions in the light of several simple experiments. Though we will quote DCL's paper throughout, some previous knowledge of its content is recommended. The reader will be also referred to a book written by Dominique Labb (hereafter DL) in 2003 (Labb, 2003). In that book, DL recapitulates for a larger audience most of the contents of the paper